It is rare feat in mixed martial arts when a replacement fighter actually increases the interest for a fight, so that makes this particular announcement all the more interesting. It appears that Yves Edwards has suffered an undisclosed injury that has forced him to withdraw from his upcoming UFC on FUEL 3 lightweight fight with Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone. Luckily, UFC matchmaker Joe Silva has found literally the PERFECT opponent to replace Edwards, Iowa power puncher Jeremy Stephens, in a fight that is now all but guaranteed to be a slugfest.

We last saw “Lil’ Heathen” at UFC 136, where he was out grappled by the likely next challenger to the UFC Lightweight title, Anthony Pettis, en route to a split decision loss. Prior to that, Stephens had scored two straight, KO’ing Marcus Davis out of a Zuffa contract at UFC 125…

7-6 in his octagon career, Stephens will be facing another tough test when he takes on Donald Cerrone, who had arguably the best 2011 of any fighter, scoring four straight in the UFC over Dennis Siver and Charles Oliveira among others. Unfortunately, on December 30th, Cerrone would get his ass whooped worse than Kevin Bacon’s in Animal House by Nate Diaz at UFC 141, which wasn’t a great way to ring in the new year. That being said, it looks like a good match just got even better, with all due respect to Yves. Prepare yourselves for three rounds of absolute war, ladies and gentlemen, because these two granite-chinned SOB’s don’t know how to put on anything else.